Research leading to the completion and reduction to practice of the invention was supported, in part, by Grant No. 49620-92-J-0351 issued by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The United States Government has certain rights in and to the claimed invention.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel methods for the synthesis of polypeptides.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Protein or polypeptide synthesis in nature requires the presence of enzymes which function as catalytic substrates, directing the reaction pathways for coupling amino acids with each other and with peptides via the so-called peptide linkage, --OC--NH--. The catalytic enzymes also enable the amino acid and/or peptides to overcome the energy barriers to the formation of the peptide linkages.
Numerous synthetic methods have been suggested heretofore for preparing polypeptides. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method for synthesizing polypeptides.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel reaction medium useful for the preparation of polypeptides.